Victoria golf course teaching professional Robb James has this advice for hitting a bunker shot:

“To get the golf ball out of a bunker — in one shot — you have to know how to use the sand wedge properly.

“The club is designed to glide through the sand. It’s the sand that propels the ball forward, not the club.

“You don’t want to forward press your hands or lean into it too much because then the bounce of the sand wedge will be reduced and you will bury the club into the sand and not get the ball out of the bunker.

“A lot of people get their hands really forward which de-lofts the sand wedge and reduces the bounce.

“Your shoulders need to tilt properly so that the club can travel up.

“What you want to see is the butt-end of the golf club pointing at your body.

“You want to get a little more weight onto your left side without leaning your body too much; otherwise the golf club is going to get really steep and it won’t travel up the slope.

“Good players make sand shots look so easy because their sand wedge performs the way it should.”